I had someone
by GirlDressedInBlack
Summary: If Eurus had a friend what would have become of her? Snapshots of Eurus' life if Victor Trevor had had a younger sister.
1. First Meeting

_So this is at the moment just a load of oneshots because I'm interested in how things would have changed if Eurus had a friend and want to explore the idea because I love Eurus so much~_

Eurus Holmes observes the girl with a slight amount of curiosity.

The girl is stupid- even stupider than Sherlock. She can tell that just by looking at her. She will amount to little- possibly become an accountant or a teacher. Nothing exciting. The boy is the same, maybe not quite as smart as the girl (as if that is saying anything) but already she can see that her Sherlock will become good friends with him.

Mummy bends down to her level and smiles.

Eurus looks at her, unblinking, emotionless.

"We thought it'd be nice for you to meet someone your own age Eurus. Wouldn't it be nice to have a friend?" Her father is busy, trying to convince Mycroft to introduce himself to the children despite the fact they were clearly beneath them. Her brother refuses calmly and Eurus looks back at her mother.

"I'm Eleanor." Says the girl. The youngest Holmes looks at the normal child.

"You along with Victor live with your parents. They shout at each other sometimes. You want to be a nurse but it's just a childhood fancy. Within ten years you will have decided against this and will be busy working a part time job to earn money towards a university course you are uninterested in." Eurus states this confidently. Her mother frowns, opening her mouth to defuse the tension.

"Every mummy and daddy argue sometimes." The little girl frowns, staring at Eurus in fascination and confusion, "And even if I don't want to be a nurse tomorrow I can always pretend." She pauses, processing the rest of Eurus' speech. Obviously not seeing the sense in it she tilts her head, eyebrows furrowing. Eurus thinks that the girl must be even dumber than she had previously guessed.

"I don't know about the other things... Do you play pretend?" The pigtailed girl tilts her head to the side this time. Some spark of interest piques in her.

"Yes. I am very good at pretending." Eleanor's gaze lights up as she takes Eurus' hands. Eurus looks down at them in curiosity, cataloguing the individual responses of her body.

"Would you like to play with me then?" Eurus stares at Eleanor.

 _This girl is stupid._ She remembers.

"No." She says without inflection.

Eleanor frowns, looking down at the floor.

"Oh. Okay then. I'm going to play with Victor then." Eurus watches the small girl go off to join her brother and Sherlock.

She doesn't miss the boys' frowns as they agree.

Eurus can't wait to see how this experiment will turn out.


	2. Rejection

Eurus watches as the girl approaches Victor and Sherlock.

From the increasing look of irritation on the two's faces they will say no this time.

Eurus lets her arm holding the plane drop, staring at the group. The boys say no and Eleanor cries. Mummy tries to convince them to allow the stupid girl to play but they refuse.

The next fifteen times she asks they say no too and she stops asking after that, comforting herself by drawing flowers and cats and other things normal girls her age draw. Eurus is satisfied with her prediction for the social rejection experiment.

The pigtailed girl approaches Sherlock, back straight and head tilted upwards.

"Will you not allow me to play dear brother?" She asks out of politeness as she knows her mother will approve. The curly haired boy scowls at her.

"You're too little." He says self importantly. Eurus tilts her head to the side in curiosity and nods at her older brother. It seems that the same results come from others of the same physical age and gender.

She goes back to her plane, dragging it through the sky.

Despite the fact she had expected it something annoys her about the fact that her dear brother doesn't allow her to play.

The other girl tries again too some days when she sees that Eurus is doing it. All that happens is the increase of irritation present in the two boys and the widening of the rift between Sherlock and his sister even when his Redbeard isn't here.

Eurus holds the plane limply in her hand.

"Play with me Sherlock!" She demands calmly. The boy refuses. Eurus frowns, eyebrows furrowing slightly and alluding to her anger.

That boy is taking her brother away from her.

She feels something shift and her gaze flickers to the boy.

He has a strong connection with his sister. As he is removing Sherlock from her she should remove Eleanor from the boy. That would be fitting. Sherlock is- in his core- nice so he wouldn't want his friend to be sad so he would give up their friendship and play with Eurus again if it meant that the boy could play with his sister again.

She watches passively as Sherlock rejoins his friend who is busy telling Eleanor that she can't play because she's a girl.

She sees a few flaws in the plan but suddenly her annoyance clouds her thinking enough that she grabs the girl's arm.

"I cannot allow you to play with Eleanor, Victor, as we are going to play pretend." Eleanor yelps as Eurus drags her backwards.

"Ouch- Eurus! You're hurting me!" Victor immediately leaps to the aid of his sister and Eurus scowls at him.

"We're going to play pretend and you will not interfere." The boy steps back and Eurus tilts her head, "Understand?" Sherlock stands behind him, unsure about what to do. The boy sees sense.

"Let's go Yellowbeard- we don't want to play with little girls!" Eurus' brother follows, seemingly uncertain about the new rules Eurus has set for their relationships.

"Being a girl is not a thing to be insulted for any more than being a boy. All are enslaved by their minds and there is no difference between the male and female brain." She knows that Sherlock's Redbeard has too limited an intelligence to understand but she doesn't care.

Eurus turns back to the girl.

"When I play pretend I am a girl in an aeroplane far above everyone which is going to crash. I am the only one on the plane awake and it will destroy the city below when it crashes." Eurus states so that the girl has some awareness of what roles she can and can't play. Eleanor looks at her in confusion, pain already forgotten.

"Then who can I be?" Eurus tilts her head, considering.

"You can be in the city. When I fall you will burn." She says evenly. Eleanor frowns.

"I don't want to die." The pigtailed girl frowns back at her.

"Everybody dies someday. You will die inevitably. Should you not want to practise?" The girl pulls a face.

"Can't I be on the plane too? I can help you put the plane on the ground so no one gets hurt." Eurus tilts her head, thinking.

"No. Only I am on the plane. None can reach me. You are on the ground in the city." Eleanor sniffs.

"Then I'm not playing." Eurus allows the girl to stomp back over to her drawing.

It's time for a new experiment.


	3. Adaptation

"Let's play pretend." Eurus tells Eleanor when she comes over again. The girl nods as her brother joins Sherlock by the river.

Eurus takes the plane in hand and begins immediately before Eleanor can argue.

"Mummy? Wake up! Why won't you wake up mummy?!" Eleanor looks over at the girl panicked by her tone. She reaches out to the other girl, holding the plane aloft and standing on the tips of her toes.

"Eurus? Are you okay?" Eurus' eyes remain closed.

"We're playing the game." She insists. Eleanor nods unsurely, stepping away from her.

There is a pause and the curly haired girl continues.

"Wake up Mummy! Wake up!" Her voice climbs in fear as she swings the plane through the air. Eleanor watches as the girl freezes again, lips wobbling as if she's about to cry.

"Help me somebody! I'm all alone and I'm on a plane and it's going down! Help me please!" She shouts and begins to scream. Eleanor jumps, falling onto her bum.

"Are you okay Eurus? Are you hurt? What's the matter?" Eurus' mother hurries outside as Eleanor stands fretfully beside the odd girl.

"Are you okay dear? What-"

"We're playing the game mother." Says the small girl in her usual voice, void of emotion. A few seconds later her face crumples again and she lets out a sob which is entirely incompatible with her mood only seconds before. Eleanor's face lights up as the disparity in moods reveals to her that it's an act.

"Help me! Help me someone! The plane's going to crash and I'm all alone and everyone's asleep and I don't know what to do!" Shouts Eurus. Eleanor stares at Eurus in confusion, as if thinking then grins and starts screeching too, pointing at the sky.

"There's a plane coming and it's going to crash and kill us all! Someone help us please! I don't want to die!" She screams and the sound is much happier than Eurus' wail of pure fear but that doesn't dissuade her.

Eurus certainly doesn't notice the difference. A grin flashes onto her face before it's eaten by horror.

"It falling faster and faster and I can't stop it! Help me! Help me!" Both girls scream.

"Please I don't want to die!" Eleanor cowers in fear, crouched on the floor. She sees her brother look over in irritation and lets a grin touch her lips at her revenge.

"Someone stop this plane from crashing! I don't want to die!" She screeches louder for her brother's benefit.

The two girls run alongside the river, Eurus with arms outstretched and Eleanor running from her.

"I'm crashing! I'm crashing! Somebody please help me!" She begs, kicking up water.

"I don't want to die!" Yells Eleanor, giggling. She cries out as Eurus collides with her, eyes closed. Eurus jolts, looking up in shock, face pale.

Both are soaking wet.

Eleanor starts to laugh, red hair clinging to her face. She pushes it back with small hands.

"You crashed into the city Eurus!" She giggles, grinning at the other girl.

Eurus looks at her, truly confusedly for the first time in her life. Her lips move upwards by themselves.

"I crashed." She says plainly. Her hair hangs from the sides of her head, fringe over her eyes. She brushes it away.

"The city is burning." She states, lips acting of their own accord again and momentarily becoming a smile.

Eurus' mother checks they are both okay before retreating to the porch to let the children play. Her husband smiles, joining her. Mycroft looks at Eurus speculatively.


	4. Questions

_I've decided that I like writing mums- I like to think that the Holmes' mother has some of that 'deduction thing' herself._

 _Also although I really love science I have been so preoccupied with work over the last few years that it's gone a bit rusty so I've had to do some research for this chapter and have tried to put across what I've interpreted in the research in a way that is somewhat easy to understand- if you know better and have evidence you can link me to from a reputable source which proves me wrong I will happily try and change what I have written when I next have the chance :)_

For months on end the two girls play pretend, moving from plane crashing to apocalypse scenarios. Eurus always plays the girl on the plane or the scientist trapped in the last lab on lockdown and Eleanor always plays whatever is left. Curiously Eurus notices that when she is playing with Eleanor she is not thinking of Victor playing with Sherlock or frowning.

"I'm glad playing with Eleanor makes you so happy Eurus- it's good for a girl to have friends." Says Eurus' mother when Eleanor has gone home with her brother at the end of another day and they have all eaten. The girl looks at her mother, head tilted slightly to the side.

"How do you know I'm happy?" She asks. Her mother frowns, places her bigger hand over Eurus' smaller one.

"What do you mean dear?" Asks Eurus' mother, "Aren't you happy? You always seem it." The girl simply stares at her mother, privately thinking that the woman isn't very clever.

"I mean how do you know that I am happy when I am playing with Eleanor? What is being happy?" Eurus' response leaves her mother looking troubled. The woman crouches beside her, taking her hands in both of her own. Eurus finds the movement pointless.

"Well..." Begins the mother. Eurus can tell she doesn't know where to begin and that she is feeling a lot of things by the expressions on her face.

"You smile more when you play with Eleanor and you had been frowning more before when Sherlock and Victor hadn't been letting Eleanor or yourself play with them. You aren't the type of person who would hide your feelings for other's benefit so obviously there is something actually causing you to be more happy- signified by your smiling." The woman looks at her daughter, clearly trying to sort out her next words.

Eurus waits, silent.

"And happiness..." Her mother says, an expression on her face that Eurus reads as similar to Sherlock's when someone falls over, "Happiness is a mixture of chemicals in the brain essentially. These chemicals are dopamine- a chemical which is produced as a precursor to a new situation or outcome- oxytocin- a chemical which has been shown to improve the gain of social skills and help build relationships- seratonin- a chemical which is linked to mood changes- and endorphins which reduces your sense of pain. But really happiness is something more than that- it's hard to describe." The girl thinks her mum's response makes more sense and she decides then that she will pay more attention to how her own body is working so she can find out when she is happy. Her mother frowns at the lack of response but Eurus still has questions.

"What is pain then?" Her mother's frown deepens, eyebrows lowering.

"Pain is when you fall Eurus. Like when you crashed into Eleanor again and your knee was bleeding. Pain is a response to bodily or emotional harm- a warning sign to stay away from it or face repercussions on your health. Didn't it hurt when you fell over?" Eurus' mother kneels to the floor properly as she speaks. The girl does not change her gaze but lets her mind drift back to the sensation of falling over. She considers each different thing she felt and feels her own eyebrows move down.

"I'm not sure which one it was. I think the endorphins you say I produce must have blocked it." Eurus says innocently. An expression beyond anything Eurus could ever decipher appears on her mother's face.

"Maybe you're right." She says evenly, "But considering how endorphins work I think there must be something else at play. Would you mind if I called someone in to give you a check up?" Eurus agrees to her mother's offer. If there is anything that needs fixing within her it would be better for it to be repaired. Perhaps then she could find out more about these feelings everyone talked about.

That night Eurus can hear the hushed voices of her mother and father talking about her. She can imagine their frowning faces with the voices.


	5. Test

_Sorry for the wait- if you want an excuse see the list of writing projects in my profile (I mean there's real life too but that's only half the issue)._

A man in a clean white coat comes to see Eurus. He talks to her brothers too but she knows he is really here to see her.

They do tests. They are easy. Eurus smiles as the man marks their papers.

He looks at them all excitedly when he's done (Mycroft doesn't see it because he's too busy reading and Sherlock doesn't see it because he isn't that smart but Eurus does). There's an element of fear as well as awe in his eyes as he looks at the odd one out among them. She stares back at him.

The man looks away quickly.

He goes and speaks to their parents in the kitchen and Eurus takes her little toy plane, managing to look enough like a normal child as she swings it through the air that Mycroft pays little attention to her sitting just behind the wall blocking them from the kitchen where the adults are talking.

The small girl listens in as the doctor discusses the results with her parents. She can hear their delight and the kettle going again. In two minutes she predicts they'll ask the children in for honey cakes. It was three minutes to twelve and her mother is exact when it comes to set meals like lunch. They would likely have something healthy like carrot sticks with them- Eurus has a feeling there might be pepper today- on account of her parents' worry about Mycroft's weight.

They do.

The man eats with her parents. They have tea and biscuits.

Eurus looks at the man as he drinks. He seems quite unnerved by her stare despite his claim that she was 'an era defining genius'- perhaps because of it. Definitely because of it.

The young girl notices his wary eyes on all of them, mostly on her but occasionally drifting to her father and mother as well.

The doctor is afraid of them all even though he is impressed.

He finishes his tea and another biscuit in silence, watching the children as they eat.

Mycroft has more honey cakes than mother has allowed him but both of their parents are distracted by the news just given to them and something else. Sherlock gets bored of eating and sticks two carrot sticks into his second cake and pretends it's a boat. There are more honey cakes out than usual even accounting for Mycroft's extra two.

Eurus looks at the clock. Fourteen past twelve. The Trevors will be over in eight minutes. That's why her parents are distracted.

Why more than usual though? Usually they weren't this obvious. Their eyes keep drifting to the man too. He's waiting- for what?

Ah.

The man is here to asses Eurus in particular. They have a measure of her intelligence so now they must plan to gain an idea of how she interacts with less intelligent children. Lunch had covered most of their family relations as well as their state upon his arrival and their general behaviour while he marked.

Eleanor arrives at twenty-one past twelve. Victor and his sister have one honey cake each as the adults talk with the exception of the doctor who has already started to observe Eurus.

She is quite interested in the man's reaction if she did something completely absurd but knows that this would invalidate the testing and skew the results. She wouldn't mind but she would quite like to know the results as they should be.

After the elder Trevors have went with a promise to pick their children up at the usual time the family go outside. Mycroft, father and mother sit on a picnic blanket with the doctor while Sherlock and Victor play in the water and Eleanor grabs Eurus' hand.

"What are we going to play today, Eurus?" The girl asks, swinging their arms between them. Eurus looks back at the doctor watching them distractedly.

"We will play the plane game." Says Eurus as she turns to look at Eleanor rather than the man.

The doctor's petrified stare and frantic questions about whether her realistic screaming is her usual behaviour is funny when contrasted with her mother's calm;

"Only when she plays the plane game. It's more of a hysterical sobbing when she plays the apocalypse game."

Eurus falls into the river, Eleanor collapsing on top of her as she laughs so hard there are tears in her eyes.

There's a strange rush of chemicals that Eurus has learned to notice come with close contact with others after her mother's talk- they signify happiness. She must be happy.

Eurus laughs a little bit. It's different but she finds that it dulls one of the already weak feelings which is linked to her knees and palms.

Interesting.

Eleanor wraps her arms around her tightly for some reason. Eurus finds that interesting too and it increases the amount of chemicals signifying happiness.

Eurus hears the doctor's report from behind the door to the kitchen again.

"I suspect it is of vital importance to Eurus' mental state to have the connection that Eleanor provides to the normal world. She seems to have a normalising effect on your daughter which going without may cause distancing from humanity in general." The man keeps talking but Eurus focuses the most on those words even as she listens to the rest.

Eurus has always known she isn't normal.

She has appreciated this fact.

Now however with the fact that Eleanor is a normalising influence on her Eurus thinks that she doesn't mind being a bit more normal if it means she gets to play with Eleanor. The girl may be normal and quite stupid but she was a good substitute for her brother.


	6. Reading

_I have literally one idea where I'm going with this fic (and it's one which I'm certain will not be universally loved but is the direction I planned to head in from the beginning so I'm sticking to it). Just thought I'd let you know. If anyone has suggestions I'm listening :)_

Eurus Holmes goes to school just the same as her brothers do for a few days before her parents realise that she doesn't have Mycroft's obedience or Sherlock's normalness to keep her there.

The first time she disappears her mother tries talking to her upon their arrival home. The car ride had been fraught with tension aside from Sherlock excitedly regaling his day and what he had learned to all of them.

As Eurus had suspected it had been the precursor to another one of her interesting conversations with her mother.

"Why did you leave school Eurus?" It begins as her father and Mycroft usher Sherlock from the room, distracting him with drawing and television and various things that children of his age should enjoy.

The girl is calm, looking directly into her mother's eyes.

"It was unsuitable for me." She replies honestly.

"Why's that?" Her mother asks gently. Eurus doesn't know why she's being gentle. Surely with her level of intellect she should realise the pointlessness of gentleness.

For a moment Eurus thinks, pulling up all the things she had found disagreeable about school.

"It was boring." The young girl states, gaze unwavering, "I want to learn and that is not an environment conducive to my learning." Her mother's lips thin and Eurus can tell she's thinking.

"The children there are dull and socially incompatible and inferior to me." She says, meaning every word.

"I am disappointed in you saying that Eurus Holmes." Eurus' mother says sharply.

"You are not superior to others because of your intelligence and I know that you are more than smart enough to be able to make friends from even the most unlikely of people. If I hear you say something like that again I will teach you myself."

Eurus regards her coolly, cocking her head to the side in curiosity.

"What is the point in lying to yourself mother?" She asks, "You know that the truth is that the more intelligent will always hold power over those who are lesser than them." Eurus says, gaze still locked with her mother's.

"I would however be interested in an education at home. I trust that my own parents would have a better grasp of my educational needs than the fools employed by the school." Eurus finishes.

For a moment her mother just watches her, scanning her face as if she could find emotion there.

"You can't think that way, Eurus." She says eventually.

"It will trap you away from everyone else if you do." Her mother says heavily, trying to impress the importance of equality upon her daughter.

Her daughter sees a flash of the future imposed on the present.

"You look tired mother." Eurus tell her mother who just sighs in response, looking away for a second.

"Just please Eurus- I can try and arrange to teach you here but can you please just go to school and try to get by for two days? Just give it a try." Her mother pleads, taking her hand.

The girl looks down at her hand. She knows that this is a psychological persuasion trying to use the boost of oxytocin from contact and a small part of guilt. In fact she's quite offended that her mother would think it could work.

Eurus looks back into her mother's eyes.

"I will go for two days but no more. I do not promise to go for the two whole days. In return I would like to invite Eleanor over for tea on Friday evening. If it requires her brother to come that will be amenable." The young girl says.

Something flashes through her mother's eyes then. Eurus reads it as a sudden revelation or solving a complicated equation.

"I can agree to those terms." Says her mother, something in her gaze which Eurus has never seen before.

Eurus does attend school for those two days. She persuades the teacher to give her the whole set of work for those two days on the morning of the first and completes it all.

The girl then proceeds to wander for the rest of the day.

The library is deemed useless at first glance but before lunch Eurus finds herself back there, brushing her fingers over the flimsy spines of picture books. They are only stories but somehow they are more interesting than anything else in the school.

She has explored everywhere. The staff room was a lot less exciting and impressive than the children seemed to consider it and the other classes she had sat in on had been full of the normal people. Even the eldest of them were struggling or just managing to cope with things she had been able to do for as long as she could remember.

And still she had not left but instead found herself in the library, pulling down one of the thin books and flipping it open to the first page.

A child stares out of their window into the night.

Eurus flicks to the next page.

When Eurus gets home she draws.

Her mother asks her about school.

"School was boring." She says, drawing the shape of a plane in the sky. In her picture there is no sun and only a few stars. The moon does not sit in the top right corner of her page.

"Did you make any friends?" Asks the woman, watching her child draw.

"I did not." Says Eurus simply, "They were dull." The girl says, her gaze settled on her mother for a moment before she turns back to her drawing.

"The stories though. They're interesting." She states, focusing.

Her mother looks at her in brief surprise but she misses the expression as if a horse wearing blinkers.

"The stories?" Asks her mother, "What makes them interesting?"

Eurus' attention does not waver as she speaks.

"Every story holds a piece of the author. A tiny piece of life experience. Stories describe the unscientific and indeterminable." The girl says, drawing squares of lighter colour in the bottom right of the page.

"You want to learn about feelings." Her mother says, voice somewhere between a question and a statement.

Eurus nods, rubbing the blue pigment back over the squares to soften the colour.

Preoccupied by her drawing Eurus doesn't notice her mother turning away from her and swallowing, hand against her forehead.

Eurus spends the second day of school in the library again. She gets through it this time, finishing every book in there. It's good timing because she will not be returning there.

There's something in each of them that she doesn't quite understand- something out of her reach.

Her mother asks her that evening about friends again and Eurus replies the same way she had the evening before.

"What about Eleanor then?" Mother asks, "If you can connect with Eleanor surely you can form a bond with other children." She says, watching her child draw again.

Eurus shakes her head.

"Eleanor is different." Eurus states.

"How?" The woman asks, curious instead of frustrated.

The young girl stares down at her drawing, putting her pencil down.

"Eleanor entered my life at a point where my brother was becoming less interested in being involved with me. I associated with her to avoid my own frustration with him and her brother and she did the same with me. Any other child who attempted to make friends with me now would have no motivation to continue such attempts or try to connect. She plays my games without complaining or questioning. Despite her low natural intelligence she implicitly understands the role she must play in counterpoint to mine." Eurus states.

"When I crash into her she doesn't complain." The girl says.

Eurus stands abruptly from the table, leaving her art there.

"I'm finished." She says in explanation.

"Wait." Her mother calls out and the girl does, turning to look at the woman.

She says nothing and her mother continues.

"If you like I could arrange for you to go to school with Eleanor. I can give the teachers work for you so you have something to do."

The girl cocks her head to the side.

"I think I would like that." She says, testing the words on her tongue.

Eurus smiles.


	7. Help

_Sorry for not updating for ages! I meant to update much sooner but uni's been eating all my time- hoping for a shorter gap next time but I hope you enjoy!_

Eurus slept easily that night, ignoring her mother's phone call even though the steel in her voice which was usually absent was quite interesting. She didn't care to listen when she knew what the outcome would be.

The next day Eurus went to school with Eleanor.

The school is a bit larger than her previous one and more cheaply furnished. The children there are just as uninteresting as at the first but she has Eleanor and that will suffice as always.

Eurus doesn't fidget with her new clothes as she is guided to the correct classroom and ushered inside. The girl doesn't speak to the man who won't stop patronising her and eventually it makes him uncomfortable enough to shut up, eyeing her peculiarly.

She introduces herself as requested and raises her eyebrows at the teacher's false cheer.

Eurus takes the seat next to Eleanor which had obviously been requested by her mother considering the seating plan she had spotted on the teacher's desk and the arrow moving a Jamie away and her name put in his place.

She thinks that might warrant thanks when she gets home.

Quickly the excitement of a new person (not that any of the children are much less new to education than her) is dampened a little by the teacher's requests for silence and the beginning of the lesson.

Eurus zones out and considers leaving.

The lesson is beyond simple- even Sherlock could have done it when he was her age probably.

Eurus does not sigh or change her posture but she does look around idly.

Her eyes settle on Eleanor and the girl is surprised to see her friend's brow is creased and her mouth set in a frown.

She couldn't be?

Could Eleanor _really_ be having trouble with such a simple concept?

The girl doesn't look at her, focused on the teacher.

That settles it for Eurus.

She would have stayed merely for Eleanor's company however the fact that the girl is failing to comprehend even basic Maths is almost offensive if Eurus wasn't so aware of how stupid most of the populace of the world was.

She couldn't let Eleanor be as dumb as the rest of them.

With those odd thoughts powering her Eurus manages to remain seated until the teacher passes out worksheets.

Eurus' are much more interesting and a lot less decorated with cartoon animals and objects presumably to help visualisation for the incapable. Eleanor looks at them in momentary curiosity and her brows furrow further as she compares it to her own.

Eurus thinks that perhaps Eleanor has forgotten how far apart they are intellect-wise.

The pigtailed girl begins her own work, hoping that the girl beside her will figure out something by herself in the meantime.

By the time Eurus has completed all that the teacher has given her (she suspects that the teacher has withheld work, underestimating her) Eleanor is only just finishing her sheet.

"Are you really finding it that confusing?" Eurus asks the girl, head tilted to the side in an almost offensive manner. It's likely that if Eleanor hadn't known her for so long she would have been upset but as it is she just frowns a little deeper.

"It's not easy for everyone." The girl says quietly.

Eurus has a funny thing which feels very different to when she smiles.

"I can try to teach you." She offers, feeling uncertainty for the first time in a long time.

Eurus expects that Eleanor will accept the help but part of her also thinks Eleanor will not.

"Okay." She says.

Eleanor smiles at Eurus, eyes lighting up and nose wrinkling.

Eurus feels herself smile back.

Eurus goes through all the questions with Eleanor when the girl has finished the last of the paper. They're about half way through and Eleanor has begun to pick out her own mistakes and correct them much more quickly when the teacher interrupts them.

"Eurus- I know you're new but the rules in this class are to try not to disturb other people in lesson times. When you have break you'll have plenty of time to talk but now it's Maths time." The woman crouches beside her, quiet, clearly trying not to disturb any of the children around them. It's a futile effort.

"I'm helping her. I have finished the work you have given me and I'm bored." Eurus says simply.

The teacher seems offended.

She says nothing but looks through Eurus' papers to check that she isn't lying.

For some reason this makes her feel a bit like when Eleanor's brother took away Sherlock. Eurus stares at the teacher until she's finished checking.

The woman's shock and paling skin lets the annoyance abate a bit.

"I'll get you the rest of the work then." She says, voice shaking a little as she stands.

The teacher hovers for a moment longer, fingers moving as she looks over Eleanor's worksheet and nods to herself.

Eleanor doesn't notice, too focused on fixing her own mistakes now that she understands. The other kids don't notice, too busy giggling over what they think is the new kid behaving badly and getting into trouble.

Eurus does she and meets the teacher's eyes.

"I do not lie." She says calmly, not shifting her gaze.

The teacher smiles in a way that Eurus can instantly tell is covering anxiety.

"Would you like to help teach everyone else, Eurus?" She asks, "You seem to be good at it." The woman adds, clearly unsure what to make of her.

"No." Eurus says without inflection.

"Why not?" The teacher asks, frowning again. She's disappointed. Eurus does not care.

"I do not help people unless I want to." The child responds, not backing down.

"That's not very nice. You could make more friends if you helped teach them." The teacher says, frown deepening.

Eurus still hasn't averted her gaze.

"I do not care to be nice." She states, "I have no need to bond with others and as such niceness towards those I have no interest in would be a waste of my efforts."

The teacher does not push any further.

In fact she largely leaves the two alone for the rest of the day, checking on Eleanor at times but never speaking to Eurus.

Eurus doesn't care. She does the work her mother has set her and in the playground she tells Eleanor about a story she has read about dragons.


	8. Stories

Meant to post this yesterday but ended up in an all day meeting. Here now though after another long break, haha! Next chapter will hopefully come on the 22nd of July.

* * *

Eurus watches her mother read the letter from her bag. She already knows what it says and is interested in how her mother will react.

Her eyes look away from the paper and Eurus tilts her head, face impassive.

"Eurus." Her mother says, bending down to her level.

The girl says nothing. Her mother scans her face, looking deep into her eyes for a while.

"Try not to worry the teachers too much." Eurus' mother says as she stands again. She folds the paper up again and slides it back into the envelope.

Eurus doesn't bother mentioning that it was more fear than worry.

Eurus gets by relatively easily from then on in school. She goes through the papers her mother organises for her each day and then helps Eleanor in whatever the rest of the class are doing that day.

In breaks she and Eurus play along to the stories in Eurus' head.

Slowly, and with quite a bit of help from Eurus, Eleanor begins to pull up to the other students capabilities.

Eurus meanwhile watches the other children.

She knows that they talk about Eleanor and herself. Some of it is about how clever they are and some of it is questions about how long the two have been friends.

Other parts make a strange coldness spread in Eurus.

After the first time that happens she pulls Eleanor away to the library and picks out books.

That first time ended up with another letter home, Eurus' mother folding her arms and a brief discussion on why she couldn't threaten other people even if they said things about her friends that made her angry.

Eurus had to correct her that it was only because the things they were saying were false.

It took her another whole minute of considering the likely outcomes of any action she could take to get her to agree to not threaten people even if they were extremely wrong.

Eurus knew that most courses of action which weren't agreeing have a risk of being separated from Eleanor again.

She knows that she has some level of interest in the other girl but her own dislike of the idea of separation is still somewhat surprising to Eurus.

It doesn't take long for Eurus to finish the whole library at the new school despite the increase of her workload and it's difficulty. With her mother's pressure on the school and the fact that she is well known among the staff (although she has met very few of them) it takes only a few more days for the school to sanction library visits to the local library for her with a member of staff to ensure she ends up in the correct place.

It only takes a touch of Eurus' persuasion to have them leave her alone and let her mother be none the wiser.

There's only a small step to take between reading stories and writing stories.

Eurus practically leaps into writing.

Her stories start off as her games do; one person alone and in danger and someone else trying to help them from safety. Through her reading they are somewhat enhanced, medical textbook inspired gore or maybe description from another book. They don't stay there for long.

It's only on the second day of writing that she realises that her stories aren't as convincing as the ones she reads because there aren't enough characters.

She tries to think of other characters but when she tells Eleanor what she's doing the ideas somehow seem more interesting. More strange- not things Eurus would have thought of.

At weekends Eurus and Eleanor sit side by side at either the dining room table in the Holmes' house or at the kitchen table at Eleanor's.

Eurus writes, Eleanor almost leaning on her shoulder the whole time as she provides characters and ideas for Eurus' stories. Eleanor swings her legs back and forth, scribbling out drawings when she's not helping Eurus write or attempting to write her own little stories even though she has nowhere near the level of interest Eurus does or hand-eye coordination.

Sometimes she tells Eurus stories too and the two sit, discussing explosions and people from their classes and secret islands.

The introduction of an antagonist outside something uncontrollable like a plane crash or a burning building is perhaps the biggest step Eurus makes in those first few months of school. It shows a clear sense of right and wrong- or as clear as someone who sees almost entirely in greys can see them- which takes Eurus' mother quite by surprise.

Her mother and father watch on as she writes, pleased by the small steps towards understanding that Eurus makes through writing even though they are things other children- even their own other children- understood almost implicitly.

Mycroft says nothing but approves as his parents seem to. He will admit only to himself that it makes her less chilling.

Slightly.

Sherlock doesn't notice a thing, too preoccupied by Victor as they play outside in the river or the surrounding countryside.

And Eleanor?

Eleanor is too surprised that Eurus is letting her have input and too young to understand that actions can have a deeper meaning to do much else than be glad to spend time with the other girl.

All the while Eleanor steadily improves, growing to find school easier and easier as she becomes sucked further into orbit of Eurus who pulls her along in almost everything she does.


	9. Reminder

Should only be four or five more chapters of this. Next chapter should be posted on the 30th of September.

Also if my maths is wrong please correct me- it's been over two years since I've had to do trig and I never learned basic trig unfortunately.

* * *

There are some things which Eleanor can't follow her in.

* * *

It takes very little time for the curiosity of larger institutions to land on Eurus. They had been delighted by Mycroft and had hoped for a similar genius in Sherlock. Albeit clever compared to the rest of his age group he didn't have that drive which Mycroft had for learning and working his way up the ranks. He stayed, quite happy with others of his age though not his intelligence.

Eurus was completely different though.

A few of her mother's old contacts had been curious about the papers Eurus had been doing and rumours had spread out from there, rippling through the academic community. More than a few institutions had sent in papers to the school after her mother's acceptance, wanting to test the limits of the girl's knowledge without the possibility of an adult completing them for her.

Eurus completed them all quite well, having as much proficiency in subjects such as Literature as her possibly hereditary gift for mathematics.

Before she has so much as finished her first year her mother has been asked by more secondary schools, colleges and universities than she cares to remember if she would be interested in enrolling her daughter in any of their courses.

Each time her mother asks the answer is resoundingly a rejection.

Eurus would feel irritated at the repetition of the question if she cared more.

Some of the places offering her scholarship respect the decision, presuming her mother wants her to have a normal childhood whereas some are mildly offended that their offers would be turned down.

Truthfully Eurus' mother would like Eurus to have as normal a childhood as possible and although part of her is thrilled and proud for her daughter to be smart enough that all these opportunities are open to her so early and a little bit disappointed that Eurus is accepting none of them there is also a larger part of her which is immensely glad that she is turning these places down to stay with others of her age.

She doesn't have illusions that it is for any other than Eleanor though.

* * *

Eurus (and Eleanor by extension) aren't exactly ostracised but they don't really have friends outside of each other.

The staff are not fond of Eurus but as long as they interact only when needed she is no trouble and takes the teaching of Eleanor on to herself which although disheartening does mean that the girl is easily more than keeping up with everything the class are taught. Eleanor is seen more favourably, being better mannered and less frighteningly intelligent.

The children find them strange but seem too afraid of Eurus despite the fact she is quite small for their age to do more than sometimes call them 'silly' or 'boring'. Eurus' blank stare and insult that even Eleanor can't understand seem to reassert this fear in them for at least two weeks.

* * *

Eurus and Eleanor's second and third year pass much the same way as the first. Eurus' mother still sends in papers alongside those sent in by scholar still trying to find the limits of her mind and Eurus dutifully completes them before setting onto the task of distracting Eleanor back away from the lesson and to her own lessons she has formulated for her.

* * *

Late on a hot Summer Friday of their third year at school Eleanor is struggling more than she usually is with the basics of trigonometry by this point.

Eurus points again to the bit where the other girl has went wrong.

"You didn't use the correct function." She states, "Tan is supposed to be used when you only know the adjacent and opposite sides of the triangle. You should work out the hypotenuse if you want to use cos or sine to work out the angle." Eurus explains, finger moving over the neat diagram she had drawn.

Eleanor looks briefly at the paper then turns to Eurus, meeting her gaze. Eurus tilts her head curiously.

"Why did you pick me?" Eleanor asks outright.

Eurus frowns.

"What do you mean?" She asks in return.

Eleanor's eyebrows furrow and Eurus takes a few moments to pick apart the emotion. Irritation and a hint of inferiority.

"Why did you pick me to be your friend?" Eleanor asks, scowling now.

"I didn't." Eurus answer immediately.

That seems to be the wrong answer judging by Eleanor's angry 'why then?' which gains a shushing by the teacher which is ignored even more than usual.

"You are my friend because I met you early in my development. My brother became disenchanted by the idea of playing with me because he found your brother and in return I took you from your brother. You were also upset by your brother finding he preferred to play with mine and so decided to distract yourself with my presence. Eventually this formed a bond due to our similar circumstances." Eurus summarises, voice even.

This appears to be even more of a wrong answer and Eurus feels a sensation a little bit like being angry but not at Eleanor as the other girl looks away from her.

"If you're only my friend because our brothers are friends then I don't want to be your friend anymore." Eleanor says.

Eurus can see the tension in the other girl's body and is feels a spark of curiosity about the link between muscle tension, emotional displays and emotion. That curiosity is outweighed by a strange feeling in her throat and face.

She ignores it, tilting her head.

"Do you even care about me?" Eleanor moans, still not looking at her. It earns her another admonishment from the teacher which goes ignored.

Eurus frowns.

"I don't know. What does it feel like to care?" She asks, honestly confused for the first time in an extremely long time and still having that strange not-angry feeling messing around with her emotional balance.

"That's because you don't care about anything except your papers!" Eleanor shouts at Eurus, turning around.

Eurus sees that she is angry and also an emotion which is causing her to cry from reddened eyes.

The teacher sends Eleanor out and Eleanor leaves the table without collecting her stuff or pushing her chair back in.

Eurus feels her own eyes water. They're warm and she touches them in confusion. Her face is warm actually and she feels all too hot.

"Would you like to leave too, Eurus?" Asks the teacher.

Eurus looks up, mind swimming in confusion that makes her feel almost disorientated. There's a look on the teacher's face. Concern. It's an easy emotion to see.

"I would." Says Eurus because there's no point being here without Eleanor and Eleanor doesn't seem to want to see her at the moment.

Eurus quietly gathers up her things and packs away. She goes to the office. The staff seem far too concerned over something as small as her eyes watering and they call her parents.

Eurus sits in one of the far too big chairs and frowns, trying to pick her way through the mess in her mind and sort the information properly. A man working at one of the desks leaves and comes back with a small plastic cup of water.

Eurus drinks it as they try and prod her about what's wrong.

She simply tells them that she does not know.


	10. Writing

Next chapter will be on the 2nd of December. Maybe three-four chapters left of this.

* * *

That weekend Eurus' mother and father try to interact with her more than usual, one of them always asking how she feels.

She isn't quite sure what she does feel. It's not happiness and it's got a little bit of anger in it with lots of confusion.

Eurus doesn't understand. Not her emotions, not why Eleanor was upset or what she was upset about or where it came from.

Eleanor had worked on trigonometry despite her lack of proficiency for several weeks now without having that reaction.

Eurus doesn't want to read and certainly doesn't want to play with Sherlock when he offers somewhat begrudgingly or think with Mycroft when he offers her a choice political issue to dissect and solve.

Instead she writes for a few days, eating away at stacks and stacks of paper in measured writing belonging to someone far older than the little girl sat at the desk.

Her mother keeps putting food beside her and water and Eurus eats and drinks when her body needs it.

She writes about lots of things; aeroplanes and dying and dragons and heroes and burning buildings and sometimes just about her life, trying to figure out what happened and why it did.

Eurus analyses the events leading up to the outburst and tries to see what might have affected Eleanor to have it.

It leads her nowhere but into the inner world of Eleanor and that's just something she can't understand.

Everyone else is so… Messy.

Emotions and feelings everywhere, tangling everything up until they can't think in straight lines, connect cause and effect, reason or result.

At that point Eurus tires of writing, nothing to write and nothing she can know without asking Eleanor herself. It's Sunday, two in the afternoon.

Eurus would ask her mother to call Eleanor but given their last conversation it might not help her end goal of figuring out whatever the problem is and negating it.

She picks up her little violin and tucks it beneath her chin, sitting in her room and closing her eyes.

Sitting at the kitchen table Eurus' mother and father sigh, eyes meeting in worry they haven't felt for years now, magnified by the subtle folds on their brows and around their lips and eyes.

Sherlock looks up in the playroom to the white mouldings on the ceiling, frowning a little as he's momentarily distracted from the game he's invented.

Mycroft frowns a little at his book although he would deny it if asked, 'heartless' as he is.

So in Eurus' room sits the small girl, plaits in her hair neat and eyes closed, lips pursed and brows dipping in slight concentration as she delicately places the bow against the strings.

She doesn't notice her eyes watering with them squeezed shut.

Her parents do, standing just outside the door.

"She's so sad and she doesn't even understand it." Her dad murmurs, almost lost beneath the crying of the strings.

Then Eurus knows.

She keeps on moving, instinct driving her hands and keeping her breathing even as the word fills a gap that was previously unknown.

Sadness.

She feels sad.

* * *

On Monday she's back to school again, sitting in the seat beside Eleanor who doesn't look at her.

The teacher passes over a set of papers the school have been given for Eurus. She ignores them after squaring them on her desk, pens parallel to the sides and looks at Eleanor.

The other girl doesn't look at her, jaw tight and gaze stuck to the teacher like superglue or a horse wearing blinkers.

Eurus doesn't say anything but starts on her papers when there's no notice taken of her after five minutes, that new feeling gnawing at her somehow and remaining near the centre of her thoughts.

She tries to grab Eleanor at break and talk to her but she is ignored and Eurus watches her, face neutral. The other girl turns her head away and tries and talk to some kids who obviously don't like her or care, eyes flickering to Eurus in a manner clearly displaying that they know better than she does that she belongs with Eurus rather than with then.

Eurus turns away too, feeling that strange, heavy sadness in her throat and stomach.

She thinks that given that she doesn't know which words will reach Eleanor best that this is the better way for things to go until she can. Until she can find the words Eleanor can understand or until Eleanor gives in and returns to her she will ignore her too.

* * *

It's almost a month before the girls talk, Eleanor and Eurus' parents communicating to try and see if they can somehow figure out why their children have fought so badly and how to convince them to forgive each other.

Eurus knows this. It's in the phonecalls to 'no-one' and the way that when Eleanor's parents come over to drop off Victor and Eleanor stays in the car they try talking to Eurus and when Eurus' parents leave her with Mycroft to drop off Sherlock at Victor's they come back saying about how sad Eleanor seems when they're just within earshot of Eurus and in a tone which says clearly 'We want you to hear this'.

And she doesn't mind.

She doesn't know how to understand Eleanor yet and she doesn't know how to ask her to explain so she waits.

Eurus writes a lot, spare moments filled with dissections of emotions she's feeling and their relation to different things in the hope that she can learn what caring is and know how she feels about Eleanor.

She goes to school and does her papers and watches Eleanor's futile attempts at fitting in impassively.

It's partly her fault but Eleanor was willing to be changed by Eurus and likewise Eurus has been changed by Eleanor.

Over time Eleanor starts to look at her more often again. As long as she thinks Eurus is distracted by her writing or her papers or drawing.

Eurus can tell she's incredibly bored by the work the teacher is setting her and she thinks about making papers for her. It wouldn't require talking but it also would require giving up on the promise to ignore Eleanor until she has a solution to whatever problem they have.

Eurus strangely finds this a compelling argument though she knows that the promise has no logic and that the gesture might actually help them talk again.

Eurus plays a lot more in those weeks than she does in years, letting something in her that understands somehow make sound of what she feels. It helps but it doesn't.

Those words are unintelligible, too raw.

Messy.

And Eurus is not messy.


	11. Explanation

Next chapter's on the 3rd of February.

* * *

Eventually they reconcile with the interference of parents as most children do.

* * *

Eurus sits on the bed in her room, playing her small violin and trying to dissect her music into emotions. Perhaps if she can she can figure out how she feels about everything and about the situation surrounding herself and Eleanor most of all.

She has some words for it but they don't feel enough- not quite accurate enough in describing it. The music is difficult too though. The violin says how she feels closer but it doesn't give her words for feeling or a way to say it even to herself in a way which is logical.

It's a Saturday today. Victor would be coming around soon enough to play with Sherlock but that is something far from her, not concerned with her room, her violin or her emotions.

Distantly she hears feet passing by her door and hushed voices and registers that they belong to her father and Eleanor's father. They've brought Eleanor with them again.

They've done this a few times now. Tried to encourage them to talk to each other.

Eurus has decided that she won't until she understands and Eleanor won't for reasons that Eurus won't let herself decipher though she could if she let herself in seconds.

This time though Eleanor opens the door. Eurus can tell by the weight of the few footsteps to her door and where the slight thud of the push comes from after the handle is pushed down.

Her violin shrieks to a stop, a sound of shock which Eurus shouldn't have anticipated given that she knew exactly that was happening but somehow experienced still, felt still.

Eurus relaxes her arms as if choreographed, eyes fixed on Eleanor as she lowers the violin and bow.

She doesn't say anything and doesn't intend to as she frowns just a little bit.

Eleanor steps forwards again and then she's flinging herself at Eurus and is wrapped around her.

The girl stumbles a little, unsure what to do with the contact and how they stand as she tries not to damage her instrument while Eleanor has her arms tight around Eurus' back and waist.

"I'm so sorry- I was really mean and I said mean things and I miss you and I want you to be my friend again!" The girl cries into Eurus' top.

The girl doesn't know what to do but manages to put down her violin somewhat carefully as she feels her throat begin to seize and her jaw set.

Eurus put her arms around Eleanor's back.

"I felt sad that you did that." She says, voice strangely distorted as she states the fact.

Eleanor shakes in the other girl's arms as the door closes a little and Eurus hears the two dads quietly walk away.

"I thought you didn't like me." Eleanor manages to get out, hiccuping.

Eurus feels odd, still not really understanding.

"You are important to me." She says, wanting to explain it better but not having the words.

"And I like you a lot! You're my best friend and I love you and I want you to be my friend forever." Eleanor cries, still holding Eurus in a vice grip.

Eurus feels the frown already on her face deepen at this, confused by the use of forever when nothing will last that long. She doesn't say anything though, feeling a strange warmth as she holds Eleanor back too.

* * *

Eurus shows Eleanor the drawings she's done and the writing she has written since they haven't spoke but she doesn't touch the violin.

Eleanor stays for dinner with all of them and Victor.

Her parents agree for Eurus to have a sleep-over at Eleanor's the next weekend as Eleanor holds Eurus' hand, glad that the two of them are getting along again.

And largely life slides back into their normality of Eurus' papers and setting papers.

* * *

The two girls don't argue like that again for a long time.

* * *

Eventually Eurus gets bored with her constant tests, none of them a real challenge. A lot of universities and schools offer her scholarships, hundreds of thousands of pounds for the opportunity of having the young genius study there.

Eurus isn't interested in any of them.

She has GCSEs and A-Levels and could easily get a degree or two- honorary at the very least from some university that no one has heard of.

If she was Mycroft she would have accepted years ago if he'd been offered the same, wanting control and power more than anything and knowing how much status her genius could get her.

The only problem with that is that Eurus doesn't see any point in it.

She doesn't want power or money- if she did then she could just make people give it to her- that's boring.

Eurus doesn't have ambition.

Eurus doesn't want for much beyond what she has.

But still she is a rumoured to be smarter than Einstein, the world's prodigal daughter, and those offers keep coming. Her mother keeps most of them from her, knowing that it's too soon for Eurus to make a decision but still some get through to her, offers mixed with the papers, which is when her mother finally sits down with her and asks, hundreds of sheets of paper in a neat stack on the kitchen table.

"Eurus, there are a lot of universities interested in having you study with them. Are you interested in going to university right now?"

And she thinks in the millisecond that she deliberates that perhaps this should feel so much bigger than it does.

"No." Eurus says, staring evenly at her mother, "I don't."

There's a strange emotion on her mother's face as she hears this. There's a smile which means there's some happiness but there seems to be some small amount of sadness, far outweighed by the joy mind you.

Eurus doesn't quite understand why her mother stands up and wraps her arms around her but it's warm.


	12. Separating

Next chapter (and either the last or second to last chapter) is on the 31st of March.

* * *

It isn't long before Eleanor is deciding what secondary school to go to. There aren't a huge amount in the local area but there are enough that it is a difficult decision for a ten year old. Her grades are of course brilliant and her behaviour isn't really a factor that will harm her chances into getting into one of the better ones.

She doesn't really know what she wants though.

Eleanor knows that her family would be proud if she went to one of the good schools.

Well. Victor might be upset at first that she's smarter than him but she's sure he'd get over it. He's been telling her horror stories about his school anyway and she knows that she doesn't want to go there.

She likes being smart though and she likes learning new things so she wants to do that.

So Eleanor looks through the pamphlets at the kitchen table as her brother grumps over his homework at the other end, one fist pushed into his cheek.

The wooden clock on the wall ticks and Eleanor considers helping her brother but most of the time it just makes him even grumpier.

The clock ticks and her dad is cooking something for dinner tonight. It's a bit distracting to smell the food cooking and not know what it is yet- he never does tell them- but she knows that this is a very important decision which could change a lot of things so she focuses on reading each folder of papers and considering her options.

By the time her mum is helping both Victor and Eleanor clear away for dinner and asking how their work is going she still hasn't really made a decision even though she has a few places she doesn't want to go.

"Do you know where Eurus is going?" Her dad asks as he plates up something which looks like it has a lot of tomatoes in it.

Eleanor gasps a little in surprise, eyes wide.

"I don't know! She hasn't told me!" She says.

And she knows it shouldn't feel like the most important thing to think about because there are things she wants to do like be a nurse or a librarian or a secretary which need her to go to a good school but still Eleanor knows that she doesn't want to go somewhere without Eurus.

* * *

The next day the first thing Eleanor asks her friend is what school she is going to.

They never really bother with saying hello in the morning like other people do but Eurus waits a little bit longer than she usually would before replying to the question.

"Where are you looking at?" She asks in return, face impassive.

And Eleanor tells her about the list of schools that she was reading about last night and Eurus just waits patiently for her to finish. When she has the other girl is silent for a moment longer.

"You should go to Harbrook's Academy." Eurus tells her, "It is the best of your options. I am going there."

And that is more than enough for Eleanor who smiles and hugs the other girl close.

* * *

She tells her parents that evening and they look at each other in a way which Eleanor doesn't understand but they look like they are almost laughing.

Her mum pats her on the head, smiles and promises to get the paperwork done as soon as possible.

* * *

Harbrook's is very different and not too different from their primary school.

For Eurus the only real difference is the slightly bigger size and the addition of more specialised classrooms. She doubts she'll be spending too much time in them in a few days.

For Eleanor however she is almost overwhelmed by the amount of differences; the size of chairs and tables, the maze of rooms that she has to navigate, the amount of teachers, the amount of new people and new names to remember, the amount of books, the different times and the fact that a lot of her day isn't actually spent with Eurus.

Here they are split into different houses and they seem to mean a lot more than they did at primary school.

On Eleanor's first day she is taken in by a group of girls who all seem to know each other already even though they reassure her that they've only met that morning and tell her the apparent rules of secondary school; your house is the most important thing about secondary school and a family you will never leave and that the people in it are always your friends forever. The second most important thing is getting good marks and answering things right so she can get points for her house.

Eleanor is quite sure she can do that even though she doesn't know how smart everyone else is here and is a little bit nervous that they're all like Eurus.

Eurus spends the first day alone after refusing to talk to any of the children around her. It suits her quite well but she does feel a little too still and thinks that she might go and find Eleanor after the old man at the front of the room has stopped talking about boring things and they've been let out or she's finished writing the end of her story. She won't keep going to lessons like this for long. There's not really much point without Eleanor there to help.


	13. Chapter 13

Next chapter on the 26th of May.

* * *

It doesn't take more than one full turn of their scheduled week for Eleanor to be advanced a few years, her competence and confidence a surprise to the tutors and the students who hadn't also transferred from her primary school. In keeping Eurus is also moved up though it makes little difference given her already somewhat complicated relationship with the school, its teachers and its classes.

There is a slight ripple of discontent among the students and the occasional glare from students both their age and older who don't know Eleanor too well or try to get to know her. Those who do find her quite pleasant really.

That same feeling is not attributed to Eurus who slips through the people there like a ghost at times, her absence noted by slip ups in the register even after the teachers have been filled in on the situation surrounding her, the gossip that follows this and the occasional mistake made where other students try and confront her for believing she's better than them and the seeming misfortune which falls upon them.

It doesn't take long for people to leave her to her own device, teachers interacting only when they require her to complete an exam or move to a different area.

As it happens they drift apart despite Eurus' attempts to keep them together.

Within months Eleanor's academic needs are being fulfilled and leaving her more busy than ever. With the new friendships she's building taking up almost all of her time both at home and school Eurus is relegated to a third position in her friend's priorities.

This doesn't bother Eurus as much as she might have expected, swept up in her writing and her drawing. She doesn't entirely stop seeking out Eleanor in free time but the time between these instances seems to keep extending just a little.

It does however drag on Eleanor a little to have to keep explaining things to other people which she never had to to Eurus.

There's an imprecision too to the way that everyone else talks which she never realised or was bothered by until she's immersed in it. It's almost careless- and everyone seems to argue so easily over pointless things with no real right or wrong.

With Eurus there was always an objective right or wrong which couldn't be swayed by interpretation or feelings.

Eleanor feels a strange sense of duty from this to not involve Eurus with these people.

She likes them well enough and enjoys spending her time with them but she just knows that Eurus would quickly get tired of them or say something in a way one of them didn't like.

The girl actually brings it up with her once when they're sitting in the library, Eurus not looking away from her paper as she works.

"You're trying to keep your friends away from me." She says, matter-of-fact.

Her face is just as calm as always and her hair is loose- against school regulation but no one had managed to make Eurus do anything other than exactly what she wanted for years- and long.

 _Almost to her waist now_ , Eleanor notes before Eurus continues.

"You're worried that they won't like me." The girl says, words crisp as they hang in the silence of a near-empty library. She still doesn't divert her gaze from the paper in front of her.

Eleanor grimaces a little, uncertain about what to say to that.

As it always should when talking to Eurus the truth wins out.

"A little bit." Eleanor admits, "But you wouldn't like them either. You would think they're boring." She defends her decision.

Eurus finally looks at her and Eleanor denies the urge to look away.

For a few moments Eurus' eyes flicker over her face and then she smiles impishly for a millisecond which Eleanor catches as easily as if she'd held it for a whole minute.

"You must have thought that to say that." She challenges in a way which sends Eleanor panicking a little as she giggles despite her worry of being overheard. Finding the surroundings empty enough she shrugs a little and admits in a quiet voice.

"Just a little and only sometimes."

* * *

There's one thing that she does prefer about her new friends too.

Namely that she can actually talk to them about emotions without feeling funny about it.

Eurus is extremely logical but she never has been good with understanding feelings, her own or others'.

The boys don't really seem to want to talk to her much about feelings but the other girls seem happy, in a strange way which involves a lot of denial, to talk about the boys they like and how much they think about kissing them. There's something fascinating about the mild revulsion she feels when she looks over at the boys in question. She doesn't ever say that though and learns quickly to tell them that she thinks that they would be 'cute together' or say 'you should tell him'.

Months pass quickly in the new rhythm of work and socialising and thinking about how different all these people are to Eurus and how that sometimes makes her feel wistful in a strange way given that they're at the same school and it's easy now for Eleanor to find Eurus when she needs a break and just say nothing.

She isn't sure if it's the lightness of the quiet which does it or when her tongue feels too weighted down but she doesn't speak so much around Eurus anymore.

Instead she watches her from the corner of her eye when they're in the same room, making sure that she's okay even though she's one of the few people in the school who always seems to be alone.

Or sits next to her and watches her hands become more practised, more precise and unwavering as she writes or draws things which seem to fanciful really to be coming from her oldest and most logical friend.

It makes her heart warm sometimes when she thinks about how much they share.

All those years of playing around, of sitting side by side, of learning and of thinking that she would happy to be like that forever.

Sometimes the feeling presses against her throat and heats her cheeks and pulls at the corners of her eyes and lips and she finds herself sighing in a secretive way, quiet as she lets her gaze be drawn back to Eurus, ever serious and ever focused.

* * *

It's only so long before someone notices where her attention drifts to.


End file.
